It seems like we're playing video games every day. Every morning and evening on the subway, I see people swiping their phones, whether they're slinging a red bird into a pile of green pigs, guessing a friend's drawing, or any number of fun, frivolous, addictive activities. That's a lot of time spent on games, and a lot of cognitive energy. What if all of that brain power could be put toward social issues, like finding a way out of poverty?

"Late last week, Google representatives unveiled a significant enhancement to the company's ubiquitous search engine. They're calling it the "Knowledge Graph" and claiming it will support "more intelligent searching for real-world things on the internet"."

" Four Futures of Food serves up a quartet of scenarios plotting out alternative descriptions of how America, as well as the wider world, could be eating in the year 02021. Each is based on a different trajectory that change could describe - Growth, Constraint, Collapse, or Transformation."

It's hard to think of a more attention-grabbing title than Robots, Men, and Sex Tourism - especially in the academic world. Written by researchers from New Zealand's University of Wellington and published recently in the journal Futures, the paper predicts that in the decades to come, humans will patronise robot-staffed brothels, freeing them from the guilt associated with visiting a flesh-and-blood prostitute.

Do new information and communication technologies (ICTs) empower repressive regimes at the expense of civil society, or vice versa? For example, does access to the Internet and mobile phones alter the balance of power between repressive regimes and civil society? These questions are especially pertinent today given the role that ICTs played during this year's uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and beyond. Indeed, as one Egyptian activist stated, "We use Facebook to schedule our protests, Twitter to coordinate and YouTube to tell the world." But do these new ICTs-so called "liberation technologies"-really threaten repressive rule? The purpose of this dissertation is to use mixed-methods research to answer these questions.

Scientists are pioneering the use of 3D printers to create drugs and other chemicals at the University of Glasgow. Researchers have used a £1,250 system to create a range of organic compounds and inorganic clusters - some of which are used to create cancer treatments.

"Car owners invest huge amounts of time and money into an asset they barely use. Cars are driven only 8% of the time, while potential drivers walk past block after block of underutilized cars. We are here to connect the dots... to help people get around. Getaround is a social car sharing service. We enable car owners to safely rent out their underutilized cars to a community of trusted drivers. People in need of a car can rent one by the hour using the Getaround website or iPhone app. Imagine a world with fewer cars, without traffic jams, and with less pollution. We are a team of successful entrepreneurs, hackers, and business people passionate about using mobile technology to create sustainable transportation solutions. We want to empower people to travel more efficiently and cause a shift from personal to shared transport. "

"Skillshare is a community marketplace to learn anything from anyone. We believe that everyone has something they want to learn and something they can teach to others. This means our communities are really the greatest universities. Our platform helps make the exchange of knowledge easy, enriching, and fun."

rent your room peer to peer system

"TaskRabbit gets you in touch with friendly, reliable people who can help you get just about anything you need done, and put some free time back into your life."

"Clients are provided with tailored advice and practical tools for starting, scaling or sustaining their initiatives. Consultancies can cover areas such as creative brain storming, 'asset-mapping' and brand clarification, through to exploration of appropriate legal and business structures - including social enterprise - and how to creatively market and fundraise on a shoestring budget. Where relevant, clients are steered towards free tools, sent customisable documents and introduced to relevant individuals within the consultant's network."

Provides insight + surprising solutions for the dramatic field of peri-urbanisation in Europe Introduces innovative tools for planners, scientists and lay-persons allowing to integratevily analyze the impact of peri-urbanisation onto sustainable development Has unique maps showing EU-periurbanisation effects on a pan-European level Has a conclusive didactic approach + text structure (e.g.  inserts, boxes ...) Presently, peri-urbanisation is one of the most pervasive processes of land use change in Europe with strong impacts on environment and quality of life. Urgently strategies and tools in support of sustainable development have to be developed. The book synthesizes results of PLUREL, a large European Commission funded research project (2007-2010). Tools and strategies of PLUREL address main challenges of managing land use in peri-urban areas. Results will be presented and illustrated through 6 case studies which are at the core of the book. A novel, futures oriented approach to the planning and management of peri-urban areas with a main focus on scenarios and sustainability impact analysis. The book is unique: - futures oriented (e.g. IPCC framework), - links quantitative modeling and sustainability impact analysis with qualitative & in-depth analysis of regional strategies - links study at European level (Nuts 2&3 regions) with case study work - involves a Chinese case study

MIT's Technology Review has just gotten news of a mysterious new project that claims it will "create a new industry and a new definition of 'natural resources.'" Space exploration company Planetary Resources will be unveiled in a conference call on Tuesday, April 24th. Besides the audacious announcement, which promises to "overlay two critical sectors - space exploration and natural resources - to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP," what makes this unique is its high-profile support group. The venture is backed by Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, director James Cameron, and politician Ross Perot's son, among others.

'Futures' (images of the future) are often devised at the level of a single university or at a national level for the overall higher education system. However, the bulk of trends and driving forces shaping universities' future are international in their nature and universities operate in broader socio-economic and S&T systems. Hence, futures devised in a multi-level structure would better assist decision-makers and stakeholders. This approach is a demanding one in several respects, but offers significant advantages: (i) the potential changes in the social, economic and S&T systems, in which universities are embedded, as well as their impacts on higher education can be considered systematically; (ii) the substantial diversity of higher education systems and individual universities can be taken into account; and (iii) the likely impacts of various policy options can also be analysed.

Brilliant article on the insides of the struggle for control of the internet....  "For more than a year, the intelligence services of various authoritarian regimes have shown an intense desire to know more about what goes on in an office building on L Street in Washington DC, six blocks away from the White House."

The Open Technology Initiative formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks. OTI promotes affordable, universal, and ubiquitous communications networks through partnerships with communities, researchers, industry, and public interest groups and is committed to maximizing the potentials of innovative open technologies by studying their social and economic impacts - particularly for poor, rural, and other underserved constituencies. OTI provides in-depth, objective research, analysis, and findings for policy decision-makers and the general public. More Info

The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Over the next few decades, the global food system will come under renewed pressure from the combined effects of seven fundamental factors: population growth, the nutrition transition, energy, land, water, labour and climate change. The combined effects will create constraints on food supply and if action is not taken, there is a real potential for demand growth to outstrip increases in global food production. Effects on developing countries would be devastating. Developed countries will be affected too. Expectations of abundant and ever cheaper food could come under strain. The UK can no longer afford to take its food supply for granted.

FERN is a global community of foresight students, alumni, faculty, employers, and advocates of graduate foresight education, employment, and research. Please join our FERN LinkedIn group (just started, 35 members), and secondarily, our FERN Ning group (244 members) in Shaping Tomorrow's Foresight Network (STFN). We also maintain a free directory of global foresight resources at GlobalForesight.org. Feel free to add your favorite links and resources there. FERN is presently administered through the ASF nonprofit.

An industry that once told hard truths to corporate and government clients now mostly just tells them what they want to hear, making it harder for us all to adapt to a changing world -- and that's why I'm leaving it.